Andy Offutt Irwin
Encyclopedia
Andy Offutt Irwin is an American
storyteller
, arts educator
, singer-songwriter
and humorist. Born and raised in Covington, Georgia
, a small town outside of Atlanta, Irwin began his career in 1984 with an improvisational comedy troupe
at Walt Disney World
. After five years he shifted to performing as a singer-songwriter, touring the Southeast
. In the mid-1990s, Irwin branched into performances for children and since then has appeared in hundreds of schools (from preschools
to colleges
) and countless public libraries
.
Irwin continued to perform as a singer-songwriter and added storytelling to these performances, usually telling one story (about ten to twenty-five minutes in length) during a show. In the fall of 2004 he decided to pursue storytelling as a career and quickly achieved national prominence. Irwin now appears regularly in storytelling festival
s across the United States. He has released several albums which feature, stories, songs or whistling. Irwin has received three Storytelling World awards and two Storytelling Album of the Year awards.
In addition to performing, Irwin worked as an artist-in-residence
at Oxford College of Emory University
and Georgia College
for a total of fifteen years. During that time he directed several plays, conducted acting workshops and served as an acting coach. Irwin was also featured as storyteller and host of the program Evening Star on public
radio
. Currently, Irwin divides his time between storytelling festivals and children’s performances. Irwin also performs as a whistler
with the Kandinsky Trio, a chamber music
group.
Deep South
about 35 miles east of Atlanta. As a child, he always wanted to be a musician,
band
and adding guitar as a teenager. It was also in his youth that Irwin discovered his talent for imitating different sounds
, web posted February 20, 1998. Retrieved June 24, 2006. and the speech of others. While he was growing up, Irwin was an avid fan of Bill Cosby's
comedy albums, which featured Cosby's humorous stories about his youth.
Atlanta
, January 30, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2008. Irwin memorized these stories and, at his teacher's suggestion, would recite them to his class while his teacher prepared a daily report.
, April 28, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2008. Irwin later attended Georgia College where he received a B. S.
in Sociology
in 1983.
Starting in 1984, Irwin spent five years writing, directing and performing shows with the improvisational comedy troupe SAK Theatre at Disney World. Upon returning to Georgia, Irwin began to focus on singing and songwriting, though he always kept comedic elements in his music.
, May 28, 1999. Retrieved on May 15, 2006. Beginning in 1991, Irwin toured the Southeast as a singer-songwriter, performing both solo and with his band, an act that he bills as "Andy Offutt Irwin vs. the fingermonsters" (sic). From 1995 to 2001, Irwin sang humorous songs, played guitar and performed comedy as "Offutt the Minstrel" at the Georgia Renaissance Festival
.
Report, October 1995. Retrieved on August 18, 2006. He also performed at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival
during the 1980s. From 1997 through 2005 Irwin directed the annual Cracker Crumble, an evening of politically satirical
skits
put on by the Georgia Press Association for Georgia politicians and lobbyists
.
. He honed his storytelling skills in his monthly appearances with the Evening Star Music Series where he would tell a story in addition to serving as host and introducing musical acts. However at this point, he did not realize that storytelling was a performance genre and that there was a national storytelling circuit.
Around 1996 while performing at the Georgia Renaissance Festival (GARF), Irwin met nationally prominent storyteller Carmen Deedy. Deedy had previously been a GARF performer and was joining several current performers for dinner after the festival. After spending several hours interacting over dinner, Deedy said to Irwin, "You’re a storyteller". Deedy explained the storytelling circuit
name="wrhi">Interview with Andy Offutt Irwin on WRHI
, recorded March 21, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2009. and encouraged Irwin to develop his storytelling, splitting a storytelling show with Irwin at Atlanta’s 14th Street Playhouse. Leaving his guitar at home, "to stretch myself a bit," it was Irwin’s first storytelling gig.
, January 30, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
Irwin continued to develop his storytelling repertoire at Evening Star and while performing as a singer-songwriter where he would tell one or two stories during a show. His second album, released in 2004, consisted exclusively of stories that Irwin had recorded at Evening Star or at Lena’s Place Coffeehouse, a monthly venue in Atlanta for singer-songwriters. However, it was the 2004 death of Irwin’s eldest son, Tristan, that spurred Irwin to actively pursue storytelling as a career. In 2005, Irwin appeared as a Featured New Voices Storyteller
(which Irwin refers to as the "Super Bowl
" of storytelling). This appearance led him to get eleven storytelling gigs nationwide and launched his career as a full time teller.
Since his debut at the National Storytelling Festival, Irwin has performed at storytelling festivals across the United States including the San Francisco Bay Area
Storytelling Festival; the Timpanogos
Storytelling Festival in Orem, Utah
; the Hoosier
Storytelling Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana
; the Cave Run
Storytelling Festival in Morehead, Kentucky
; and the Winter Tales Festival in Oklahoma City
.
. Retrieved on May 9, 2007. In October 2007, he made his second appearance at the National Storytelling Festival, this time as a Featured Teller. In October 2008, Irwin returned to the National Storytelling Festival, appearing in the Midnight Cabaret, a show that featured both storytelling and music.
Prior to deciding to become a full time storyteller, Irwin worked as a stand-up comedian "for a few minutes". During this time, Irwin won the Farber Invitational stand-up competition at the Punchline comedy club
in Atlanta. However, Irwin came to see that the days of storytelling comedians, like Bill Cosby, had passed.
name="kearney">‘Give Me a Response’: Andy Offutt Irwin Thinks His Stories Are Funny But He Wants His Listeners To Take Away More” by Rick Brown for The Kearney
Hub, January 18, 2008. Retrieved January 19, 2008. Irwin also realized that his style of performance was at odds with the main venue available to comedians today; comedy clubs. (Irwin joking refers to comedy clubs as "evil, smelly places".
name="swc"> "Entertaining Children Without Boring the Grownups out of their Skull", Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show, December 16, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2009.) Some of his stories are an hour in length and Irwin notes, "[t]here was a time when comedians could do that but they can’t anymore because the clubs give them three minutes, and they are timing the laughs per minute." Using storytelling as a theatrical form allows Irwin to create more fully drawn characters and to explore darker subject matters as well. "Although I like to think of my storytelling as funny, I can have these serious moments. I’m not depending on the audience to laugh the whole time. . . I hope there’s content with the form."
Irwin thinks of himself as a fiction
writer
and refers to himself as a humorist, and states, "[t]he difference between a 'humorist' and a 'comedian' is the former performs in more theatres and libraries, and there isn't a three-drink minimum."
. Retrieved June 16, 2009. Irwin's stories often reflect life in a small Southern town with recurring themes of growing up and growing old, the bonds of family, the complexities of racial relations in the Deep South, especially during the 1960s
, October 10, 2005. Retrieved on August 19, 2006. and the important art of the practical joke
.
Messenger, January 14, 2007. Retrieved on February 23, 2007. In addition to performance, Irwin leads workshops where he teaches storytelling technique.
counselor. It was as a camp counsel that he started using his middle name, “Offutt”, (the maiden name of his paternal grandmother and the name of a favorite uncle).
In the mid-1990s he began touring the Southeast as an arts educator and over the years he has performed in hundreds of schools and libraries. In 2000, Irwin was the keynote performer/speaker at the Library of Congress
/Viburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy. Outside of the Southeast, his performances as an arts educator include appearances in New York City
; Mesa, Arizona
; Ventura County, California
; Indianapolis, Indiana
and Louisville, Kentucky
.
Irwin’s work in schools ranges from forty-minute shows where he sings, plays guitar and tells stories (show titles include "Offutt's Environmental
Epic
", "Noun
s, Verb
s and Other Important Stuff" and "PROtozoa
/ANTIbacterial") to weeklong residences where he leads workshops in songwriting, storytelling or creating a musical
, usually concluding with a performance by the children of their newly-created work for their parents.
Artist Guide, 2007. Retrieved on May 6, 2007. He has contributed a chapter called "(I Got Those) Low-down Dirty Emergent Reader Blues" for the book Literacy Development in the Storytelling Classroom (Norfolk, Stenson and Williams, eds., 2009).
. Retrieved August 30, 2009. The book won a 2010 Storytelling World Award in the category Special Storytelling Resources.
s for the Books Ahoy! Vacation Reading Program for children in Georgia
and South Carolina
.
positions at two colleges. During the 1983-1984 academic year, Irwin served as artist-in-residence at Georgia College. While there, he wrote and directed the play Through the Needle's Eye: A Celebration of St. Francis, which Irwin describes as a "musical comedy
". The play was subsequently produced at Duke University's
divinity school
in 1986.
In 1991 after returning to Georgia from his five-year stint at Disney World, Irwin began to work part-time at Oxford College of Emory University, first serving as acting coach and then as Interim Director of Theatre. From 1993 until his retirement in May 2007, Irwin served as artist-in-residence. While at Oxford, he directed several plays, conducted workshops, worked with the Campus Life Division and assisted Oxford's Chaplin. In 2001, Irwin was recipient of the Sammy Clark Award for Exemplary Teaching and Service.
Irwin's first album, Banana Seat, (released in 1995 on Echo Lake Records), features Irwin singing and playing guitar on ten songs (nine of his own composition and the jazz standard
"A Kiss to Build a Dream On
") often accompanied by his band, "the fingermonsters" (sic).
. One of the songs from Banana Seat, "Clamydomonas (sp?)"
(sic), is featured on the website of the International Society of Protozoologists
.
.")
by Shawn Mullins
and Matthew Kahler for their album, Jeff’s Last Dance, Volume II.
Christmas at Southern White Old Lady Hospital, Irwin's second album, (2004, Echo Lake Records), is a collection of stories about his (fictional) Aunt Marguerite who became a medical doctor at the age of eighty and still enjoys a good practical joke. Christmas at Southern White Old Lady Hospital was awarded Storytelling Album of the Year in 2006 by Just Plain Folks
, November 22, 2006. Retrieved November 28, 2006.
Irwin's third recording, Book Every Saturday for a Funeral (2006), is another collection of stories (most featuring Aunt Marguerite). As its title implies, the third album is a bit darker than the second and humorously deals with the topics of loss and grief, including the death of Irwin's step-mother
while she was in Tennessee to attend Irwin's debut at the National Storytelling Festival. Book Every Saturday for a Funeral also received a 2008 Storytelling World Award for Storytelling Recordings for Any Age.
Bootsie in Season, Irwin's fourth album (2007, Echo Lake Records) and third storytelling compilation, contains more tales of Aunt Marguerite including how she became a self-described "recovering racist
". The title track recounts Irwin's boyhood adventures as he roamed about freely on his bike
in a small, Southern town.
. Retrieved September 24, 2007. The album received the 2009 Storytelling Album of the Year award from Just Plain Folks
name="jpf09">Just Plain Folks Music Awards, Albums, 2009. Retrieved September 2, 2009. and a cut from that album, "The Beauty Pageant", was awarded a 2009 Storytelling World Award for Stories for Adult Listeners.
name="sw09">The 2009 Storytelling World Resource Awards. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
The fifth album by Irwin, Crowd Control, (2008, Echo Lake Records) is mainly a storytelling compilation that was recorded during a Teller in Residence show Irwin performed at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee in July, 2008. The album includes stories about Aunt Marguerite and her deceased husband, Charles, plus stories about Irwin's experiences with his sons, Liam and Tristan. There is also one song on the album.
. Retrieved October 24, 2008. In 2010, Crowd Control was honored by Storytelling World in the category Storytelling Recordings for Any Age.
Released in 2010 (Echo Lake Records), Lip Service is a musical album that features Irwin's whistling and 'mouth music'. Irwin also sings and plays guitar on the album and is accompanied by other musicians on a majority of the songs. There are three tracks
where he is a cappella
, performing all parts of the song by whistling, singing and making mouth percussion, including "Low Rider
" and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
". The release is a two disc set; in addition to a musical CD, the package includes a DVD
of Irwin performing five songs with the Kandinsky Trio.
. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
While Aunt Marguerite is fictional, Irwin loosely based the character on his mother ("unabashed and delightfully inappropriate") and his maternal grandmother ("a genteel, bun-haired lady of means"). As Irwin explains, "I was raised by Southern women so I imitate a lot of them. Marguerite is the voice of my grandmother, who was born in 1894, and the attitude of my mother. And anything that I want to gripe about I put into [Marguerite's] voice and nobody feels bad about me." The character of Marguerite is one that evolved from a nurse character Irwin created to entertain his mother while she was hospitalized with cancer.
Atlanta
, January 30, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
elementary school that Irwin attended in the 1960s was forced to integrate
, he became classmates with Johnny Norrington, an African American
. They became good friends despite lingering racial barriers. In his story "The Rudiments" on Banana Seat, Irwin describes an accident he caused while riding his bike on a visit to the Norringtons' all-black neighborhood. Genuinely afraid of retaliation, Irwin was whisked to safety by the boys' mother. On the album Bootsie in Season, Irwin recalls how he and Johnny managed to watch the movie Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
together despite Johnny having to sit in the "colored
section" in the balcony while Irwin watched from the level below.
, February 27, 2008. Retrieved March 3, 2008. (The two boys would share a box of Milk Duds
by throwing it back and forth between the balcony and the floor.) Friendships that crossed the color barrier were unusual at the time and Irwin had to endure vicious taunts from other white children.
In storytelling, he is best known for his "old lady characterizations" as he recounts tales of Marguerite and her friends, giving each a distinct voice that, with just a few words, can convey a great deal about that character’s personality. Irwin's storytelling albums showcase a wide variety of sound effects as well, ranging from the annoying musical ring of a cell phone to the low bellow of a fog horn. In his musical performances, the instruments he imitates include electric guitar, trumpet and tuba, leading Irwin to note, "The closest thing I have to a keyboard
player is my face".
Additionally, he is an extraordinary whistler, able to make sounds on both inhalation and exhalation, which allows him to whistle without pausing for about one and a half minutes. The Beacon, the student newspaper for the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
, recounted a portion of Irwin’s performance:
, chamber music trio
that features piano
, violin
and cello
. The Trio first saw Irwin when they were performing at the National Storytelling Festival in October 2005. The Trio was so impressed with Irwin that they suggested collaborating. In December 2006, Irwin joined the Trio in concert at Roanoke College
. The evening featured Irwin performing with the Trio by whistling several songs specifically arranged for the Trio and Irwin.
, jazz standards by Thelonious Monk
and Duke Ellington
, a Romania
n pan flute
concerto
, and unusual arrangements of popular music
. Several videos of their collaboration have been recorded and posted on the video sharing
website YouTube
including their version of the New Wave
tune "She Blinded Me with Science
" and the Monk/Best
tune "Bemsha Swing
".
, November 25, 2007. Retrieved November 27, 2007.
, storyteller, and self-proclaimed "audience
trainer" of the Evening Star radio show,
.
. Retrieved on January 7, 2007. Irwin began each radio broadcast by performing the show's theme song
(which he composed), then he told a story and introduced the musical performer(s).
The Evening Star radio show was recorded live at the Evening Star Music Series at the Sautee Nacoochee
Center, which is located in the foothills of Northeast Georgia near Helen
.
musicians.
In an interview, Irwin described a late night conversation at a Waffle House
that he had with Cyndi Craven (a friend, musician and Irwin's website designer
):
website
Gaia Community,
site Beyond the Rainbow
Irwin's quotation was chosen to be the message of the mural
s created by artist Susan Guevara for the post-Katrina
renovation of the New Orleans
Children’s Resource Center
branch library.
. Retrieved March 27, 2007. Irwin also uses the quotation as a title of a storytelling workshop that he teaches to adults.
. Retrieved September 21, 2000.
and microcephalic with the spastic quadriplegia form of cerebral palsy
characterized by extremely limited motor skill
s and cognitive abilities
. Two stories and one song on Irwin’s album Crowd Control recount his experiences of loving and living with a severely disabled child. Defying medical expectation (Irwin jokes that Tristan flunked out of in-the-home hospice
care for not dying on schedule), Tristan lived to the age of eleven, dying in 2004.
Irwin resides in Covington, Georgia with his wife and their son, Liam (born 1999). Irwin is 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
storyteller
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
, arts educator
Art education
Art education is the area of learning that is based upon the visual, tangible arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings...
, singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and humorist. Born and raised in Covington, Georgia
Covington, Georgia
Covington is a city in Newton County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 13,118. The city is the county seat of Newton County...
, a small town outside of Atlanta, Irwin began his career in 1984 with an improvisational comedy troupe
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...
at Walt Disney World
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...
. After five years he shifted to performing as a singer-songwriter, touring the Southeast
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
. In the mid-1990s, Irwin branched into performances for children and since then has appeared in hundreds of schools (from preschools
Preschool education
Preschool education is the provision of learning to children before the commencement of statutory and obligatory education, usually between the ages of zero and three or five, depending on the jurisdiction....
to colleges
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
) and countless public libraries
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
.
Irwin continued to perform as a singer-songwriter and added storytelling to these performances, usually telling one story (about ten to twenty-five minutes in length) during a show. In the fall of 2004 he decided to pursue storytelling as a career and quickly achieved national prominence. Irwin now appears regularly in storytelling festival
Storytelling festival
A storytelling festival is often an annual event that features local, regional and/or nationally known oral storytellers. Each storyteller will have a scheduled amount of time to share a story with an audience...
s across the United States. He has released several albums which feature, stories, songs or whistling. Irwin has received three Storytelling World awards and two Storytelling Album of the Year awards.
In addition to performing, Irwin worked as an artist-in-residence
Artist in residence
Artist-in-residence programs and other residency opportunities allow visiting artists to stay and work so that they may apply singular focus to their art practice....
at Oxford College of Emory University
Oxford College of Emory University
Oxford College is a two-year residential college specializing in the foundations of liberal arts education, and is one of nine divisions of Emory University. The college is located on Emory University's original 1836 campus in Oxford, Georgia, 38 miles east of the main Atlanta campus...
and Georgia College
Georgia College & State University
Georgia College & State University is a public liberal arts university in Milledgeville, Georgia, United States, with approximately 7,000 students...
for a total of fifteen years. During that time he directed several plays, conducted acting workshops and served as an acting coach. Irwin was also featured as storyteller and host of the program Evening Star on public
Public broadcasting
Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
. Currently, Irwin divides his time between storytelling festivals and children’s performances. Irwin also performs as a whistler
Whistling
Human whistling is the production of sound by means of carefully controlling a stream of air flowing through a small hole. Whistling can be achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips and then blowing or sucking air through the hole...
with the Kandinsky Trio, a chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
group.
Background and early career
Andy Offutt Irwin is a native of Covington, Georgia,United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
about 35 miles east of Atlanta. As a child, he always wanted to be a musician,
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
band
School band
A school band is a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together. A concert band is usually under the direction of one or more conductors...
and adding guitar as a teenager. It was also in his youth that Irwin discovered his talent for imitating different sounds
Augusta Chronicle
The Augusta Chronicle is the major daily newspaper of Augusta, Georgia and is one of the oldest newspapers in the United States. The paper is known for its coverage of the Masters Tournament, which is played in Augusta. Among locals, the paper is commonly referred to as "The AC"-History:The paper...
, web posted February 20, 1998. Retrieved June 24, 2006. and the speech of others. While he was growing up, Irwin was an avid fan of Bill Cosby's
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
comedy albums, which featured Cosby's humorous stories about his youth.
Creative Loafing
CL Inc. is the Tampa, Florida-based publisher of three city newsweeklies and their associated websites. Each of the papers focuses on local news, politics, arts and entertainment, and restaurants...
Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, January 30, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2008. Irwin memorized these stories and, at his teacher's suggestion, would recite them to his class while his teacher prepared a daily report.
WUKY
WUKY is the flagship National Public Radio station in Lexington, Kentucky. Owned by the University of Kentucky, it is an Adult Album Alternative station that airs over 100 hours of music a week, in addition to programming from NPR, Public Radio International, the BBC, and American Public...
, April 28, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2008. Irwin later attended Georgia College where he received a B. S.
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
in 1983.
The Technique
The Technique, also known as the "Nique," is the official student newspaper of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia and has referred to itself as "the South's liveliest college newspaper" since 1945...
, May 28, 1999. Retrieved on May 15, 2006. Beginning in 1991, Irwin toured the Southeast as a singer-songwriter, performing both solo and with his band, an act that he bills as "Andy Offutt Irwin vs. the fingermonsters" (sic). From 1995 to 2001, Irwin sang humorous songs, played guitar and performed comedy as "Offutt the Minstrel" at the Georgia Renaissance Festival
Renaissance Fair
A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering, usually held in the United States, open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which emulates a historic period for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent theme parks, others are...
.
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
Report, October 1995. Retrieved on August 18, 2006. He also performed at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival
Renaissance Fair
A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering, usually held in the United States, open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which emulates a historic period for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent theme parks, others are...
during the 1980s. From 1997 through 2005 Irwin directed the annual Cracker Crumble, an evening of politically satirical
Political satire
Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly...
skits
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
put on by the Georgia Press Association for Georgia politicians and lobbyists
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
.
Storytelling
Evolution as a storyteller
Irwin's evolution from singer-songwriter to storyteller was gradual and over a decade in the making. While performing with his band in the early 1990s, Irwin would tell a quick story between songs. He would usually end these stories with the phrase, "but I digress," before getting back to his musical performance. One evening a member of the band said to him "You know, the digressions are the best part."Shakespeare Tavern
The Shakespeare Tavern is an Authentic Elizabethan Playhouse located in the SoNo district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The Tavern is home to the Atlanta Shakespeare Company and Chef for a Night catering, which offers food and beverages before each performance...
. He honed his storytelling skills in his monthly appearances with the Evening Star Music Series where he would tell a story in addition to serving as host and introducing musical acts. However at this point, he did not realize that storytelling was a performance genre and that there was a national storytelling circuit.
Around 1996 while performing at the Georgia Renaissance Festival (GARF), Irwin met nationally prominent storyteller Carmen Deedy. Deedy had previously been a GARF performer and was joining several current performers for dinner after the festival. After spending several hours interacting over dinner, Deedy said to Irwin, "You’re a storyteller". Deedy explained the storytelling circuit
name="wrhi">Interview with Andy Offutt Irwin on WRHI
WRHI
WRHI is a news/talk radio station in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It broadcasts on AM frequency 1340 with simulcasts on 94.3 FM and is under ownership of Our Three Sons Broadcasting, LLP.-Awards:...
, recorded March 21, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2009. and encouraged Irwin to develop his storytelling, splitting a storytelling show with Irwin at Atlanta’s 14th Street Playhouse. Leaving his guitar at home, "to stretch myself a bit," it was Irwin’s first storytelling gig.
Creative Loafing Atlanta
Creative Loafing is a U.S. city newsweekly serving the Atlanta metropolitan area covering local news, politics, arts, entertainment, food, music and events. Its weekly print circulation is 100,000, and its cumulative readership over a four-week period is 608,636 according to the Dec. 2009...
, January 30, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
Irwin continued to develop his storytelling repertoire at Evening Star and while performing as a singer-songwriter where he would tell one or two stories during a show. His second album, released in 2004, consisted exclusively of stories that Irwin had recorded at Evening Star or at Lena’s Place Coffeehouse, a monthly venue in Atlanta for singer-songwriters. However, it was the 2004 death of Irwin’s eldest son, Tristan, that spurred Irwin to actively pursue storytelling as a career. In 2005, Irwin appeared as a Featured New Voices Storyteller
National Storytelling Festival
The National Storytelling Festival is held the first full weekend of October in Jonesborough, Tennessee at the International Storytelling Center. The National Storytelling Festival was founded by Jimmy Neil Smith, a high school journalism teacher in 1973...
(which Irwin refers to as the "Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
" of storytelling). This appearance led him to get eleven storytelling gigs nationwide and launched his career as a full time teller.
Since his debut at the National Storytelling Festival, Irwin has performed at storytelling festivals across the United States including the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
Storytelling Festival; the Timpanogos
Mount Timpanogos
Mount Timpanogos, sometimes informally referred to as Timp, is the second highest mountain in Utah's Wasatch Range. Timpanogos rises to an elevation of 11,749 feet above sea level in the Uinta National Forest...
Storytelling Festival in Orem, Utah
Orem, Utah
Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the north-central part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is about south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Utah and...
; the Hoosier
Hoosier
Hoosier is the official demonym for a resident of the U.S. state of Indiana. Although residents of most U.S. states typically adopt a derivative of the state name, e.g., "Indianan" or "Indianian", natives of Indiana rarely use these. Indiana adopted the nickname "Hoosier State" more than 150...
Storytelling Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
; the Cave Run
Cave Run Lake
Cave Run Lake, located south of Morehead, Kentucky, USA along Kentucky Route 801, is an , reservoir built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The 148 ft , half-mile dam construction began in 1965 and was completed in 1973. Cave Run Lake is in the northern part of the Daniel Boone...
Storytelling Festival in Morehead, Kentucky
Morehead, Kentucky
As of the census of 2010, there were 6,845 people, households, and families residing in the city. The population density was 726.2 people per square mile. There were 2,356 housing units at an average density of 253.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 93.2% White, 3.2% African...
; and the Winter Tales Festival in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
.
CD Baby
CD Baby is an online music store specializing in the sale of CDs and digital music downloads from independent musicians to consumers. The company is also a digital aggregator of independent music recordings, distributing content to several online digital music retailers.CD Baby has achieved recent...
. Retrieved on May 9, 2007. In October 2007, he made his second appearance at the National Storytelling Festival, this time as a Featured Teller. In October 2008, Irwin returned to the National Storytelling Festival, appearing in the Midnight Cabaret, a show that featured both storytelling and music.
Storytelling as a performance form
While he grew into storytelling from his performances as a singer-songwriter, it was the skills that he developed in the years he worked in theatre that Irwin drew from to become a skilled storyteller, "I look at storytelling as a form of theater. I’m on stage doing what I’ve done for years, but now it’s just me. Now I can do all the theater I want without having to worry about sets, costumes, lighting and working with a big cast. It’s very economic, storytelling."Prior to deciding to become a full time storyteller, Irwin worked as a stand-up comedian "for a few minutes". During this time, Irwin won the Farber Invitational stand-up competition at the Punchline comedy club
Comedy club
A comedy club is a venue, typically a nightclub, bar, or restaurant where people watch or listen to performances, including stand-up comedians, improvisational comedians, impersonators, magicians, ventriloquists and other comedy acts...
in Atlanta. However, Irwin came to see that the days of storytelling comedians, like Bill Cosby, had passed.
name="kearney">‘Give Me a Response’: Andy Offutt Irwin Thinks His Stories Are Funny But He Wants His Listeners To Take Away More” by Rick Brown for The Kearney
Kearney, Nebraska
Kearney is a city in and the county seat of Buffalo County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 30,787 at the 2010 census. It is home to the University of Nebraska-Kearney....
Hub, January 18, 2008. Retrieved January 19, 2008. Irwin also realized that his style of performance was at odds with the main venue available to comedians today; comedy clubs. (Irwin joking refers to comedy clubs as "evil, smelly places".
name="swc"> "Entertaining Children Without Boring the Grownups out of their Skull", Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show, December 16, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2009.) Some of his stories are an hour in length and Irwin notes, "[t]here was a time when comedians could do that but they can’t anymore because the clubs give them three minutes, and they are timing the laughs per minute." Using storytelling as a theatrical form allows Irwin to create more fully drawn characters and to explore darker subject matters as well. "Although I like to think of my storytelling as funny, I can have these serious moments. I’m not depending on the audience to laugh the whole time. . . I hope there’s content with the form."
Irwin thinks of himself as a fiction
Fiction writing
Fiction writing is any kind of writing that is not factual. Fictional writing most often takes the form of a story meant to convey an author's point of view or simply to entertain...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and refers to himself as a humorist, and states, "[t]he difference between a 'humorist' and a 'comedian' is the former performs in more theatres and libraries, and there isn't a three-drink minimum."
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
. Retrieved June 16, 2009. Irwin's stories often reflect life in a small Southern town with recurring themes of growing up and growing old, the bonds of family, the complexities of racial relations in the Deep South, especially during the 1960s
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...
, October 10, 2005. Retrieved on August 19, 2006. and the important art of the practical joke
Practical joke
A practical joke is a mischievous trick played on someone, typically causing the victim to experience embarrassment, indignity, or discomfort. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks in that the victim finds out, or is let in on the joke, rather than being fooled into handing over money or...
.
Troy, Alabama
Troy is a city in Pike County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,003. Troy experienced a growth spurt of over 4,000+ people since 2000. The city is the county seat of Pike County....
Messenger, January 14, 2007. Retrieved on February 23, 2007. In addition to performance, Irwin leads workshops where he teaches storytelling technique.
Arts educator
Irwin is a natural as a children’s performer, because at heart he is an overgrown kid. His performances for children can be traced to the summers during college that he worked as a campSummer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
counselor. It was as a camp counsel that he started using his middle name, “Offutt”, (the maiden name of his paternal grandmother and the name of a favorite uncle).
In the mid-1990s he began touring the Southeast as an arts educator and over the years he has performed in hundreds of schools and libraries. In 2000, Irwin was the keynote performer/speaker at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
/Viburnum Foundation Conference on Family Literacy. Outside of the Southeast, his performances as an arts educator include appearances in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
; Mesa, Arizona
Mesa, Arizona
According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Mesa was as follows:* White: 77.1% * Hispanic or Latino : 26.54%* Black or African American: 3.5%* Two or more races: 3.4%* Native American: 2.4%...
; Ventura County, California
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
; Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
and Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
.
Irwin’s work in schools ranges from forty-minute shows where he sings, plays guitar and tells stories (show titles include "Offutt's Environmental
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
Epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
", "Noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s, Verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s and Other Important Stuff" and "PROtozoa
Protozoa
Protozoa are a diverse group of single-cells eukaryotic organisms, many of which are motile. Throughout history, protozoa have been defined as single-cell protists with animal-like behavior, e.g., movement...
/ANTIbacterial") to weeklong residences where he leads workshops in songwriting, storytelling or creating a musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, usually concluding with a performance by the children of their newly-created work for their parents.
Woodruff Arts Center
Woodruff Arts Center is a major visual and performing arts center located in Atlanta. The center houses four arts divisions in one campus and not-for-profit organization...
Artist Guide, 2007. Retrieved on May 6, 2007. He has contributed a chapter called "(I Got Those) Low-down Dirty Emergent Reader Blues" for the book Literacy Development in the Storytelling Classroom (Norfolk, Stenson and Williams, eds., 2009).
Greenwood Publishing Group
Greenwood Publishing Group is an educational publisher and is part of ABC-CLIO. It publishes reference works under its Greenwood Press imprint, and scholarly, professional, and general interest books under Praeger Publishers...
. Retrieved August 30, 2009. The book won a 2010 Storytelling World Award in the category Special Storytelling Resources.
Public service announcement
A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...
s for the Books Ahoy! Vacation Reading Program for children in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
.
Artist-in-residence
In addition to performing for students in schools, Irwin has held part-timePart time
A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Workers are considered to be part time if they commonly work fewer than 30 or 35 hours per week...
positions at two colleges. During the 1983-1984 academic year, Irwin served as artist-in-residence at Georgia College. While there, he wrote and directed the play Through the Needle's Eye: A Celebration of St. Francis, which Irwin describes as a "musical comedy
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
". The play was subsequently produced at Duke University's
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
divinity school
Divinity School
Divinity School may refer to:* The common noun, divinity school* When used as a proper noun, may be an abbreviated reference to one of the following:** Beeson Divinity School** Berkeley Divinity School** Brite Divinity School...
in 1986.
In 1991 after returning to Georgia from his five-year stint at Disney World, Irwin began to work part-time at Oxford College of Emory University, first serving as acting coach and then as Interim Director of Theatre. From 1993 until his retirement in May 2007, Irwin served as artist-in-residence. While at Oxford, he directed several plays, conducted workshops, worked with the Campus Life Division and assisted Oxford's Chaplin. In 2001, Irwin was recipient of the Sammy Clark Award for Exemplary Teaching and Service.
Recordings
Jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
"A Kiss to Build a Dream On
A Kiss To Build a Dream On
"A Kiss to Build a Dream On" is a song composed by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II in 1935. It was recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1951 . It was also performed by Armstrong as well as by Mickey Rooney and William Demarest in the 1951 film "The Strip," and was a sort of recurring...
") often accompanied by his band, "the fingermonsters" (sic).
Racism in the United States
Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era and the slave era. Legally sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latin Americans...
. One of the songs from Banana Seat, "Clamydomonas (sp?)"
Chlamydomonas
Chlamydomonas is a genus of green algae. They are unicellular flagellates. Chlamydomonas is used as a model organism for molecular biology, especially studies of flagellar motility and chloroplast dynamics, biogenesis, and genetics...
(sic), is featured on the website of the International Society of Protozoologists
Protozoology
Protozoology is the study of protozoa, the "animal-like" protists. This term has become dated as our understanding of the evolutionary relationships of the eukaryota has improved....
.
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
.")
Eddie's Attic
Eddie's Attic is a music club in Decatur, Georgia. Founded in 1992 by Eddie Owen, it is a venue for both local musical talent and musicians of some acclaim who often got their start in the Atlanta area. Artists who developed their fanbase at Eddie's Attic include Shawn Mullins, Sugarland, Indigo...
by Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins is an American singer-songwriter who specializes in folk rock, instrumental rock, adult alternative, and Americana music. He is best known for the 1998 single, "Lullaby", which hit number one on the Adult Top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award.-Career:Mullins was born in...
and Matthew Kahler for their album, Jeff’s Last Dance, Volume II.
Christmas at Southern White Old Lady Hospital, Irwin's second album, (2004, Echo Lake Records), is a collection of stories about his (fictional) Aunt Marguerite who became a medical doctor at the age of eighty and still enjoys a good practical joke. Christmas at Southern White Old Lady Hospital was awarded Storytelling Album of the Year in 2006 by Just Plain Folks
Just Plain Folks Music Organization
Just Plain Folks Music Organization is a website and community founded by Brian Austin Whitney with the intent of helping anyone involved in the music industry to network, share their experiences, build relationships, and grow...
Creative Loafing Atlanta
Creative Loafing is a U.S. city newsweekly serving the Atlanta metropolitan area covering local news, politics, arts, entertainment, food, music and events. Its weekly print circulation is 100,000, and its cumulative readership over a four-week period is 608,636 according to the Dec. 2009...
, November 22, 2006. Retrieved November 28, 2006.
Irwin's third recording, Book Every Saturday for a Funeral (2006), is another collection of stories (most featuring Aunt Marguerite). As its title implies, the third album is a bit darker than the second and humorously deals with the topics of loss and grief, including the death of Irwin's step-mother
Stepfamily
A stepfamily, also known as a blended family or reconstituted family, is a family in which one or both members of the couple have children from a previous relationship...
while she was in Tennessee to attend Irwin's debut at the National Storytelling Festival. Book Every Saturday for a Funeral also received a 2008 Storytelling World Award for Storytelling Recordings for Any Age.
Bootsie in Season, Irwin's fourth album (2007, Echo Lake Records) and third storytelling compilation, contains more tales of Aunt Marguerite including how she became a self-described "recovering racist
Racism in the United States
Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era and the slave era. Legally sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latin Americans...
". The title track recounts Irwin's boyhood adventures as he roamed about freely on his bike
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
in a small, Southern town.
CD Baby
CD Baby is an online music store specializing in the sale of CDs and digital music downloads from independent musicians to consumers. The company is also a digital aggregator of independent music recordings, distributing content to several online digital music retailers.CD Baby has achieved recent...
. Retrieved September 24, 2007. The album received the 2009 Storytelling Album of the Year award from Just Plain Folks
name="jpf09">Just Plain Folks Music Awards, Albums, 2009. Retrieved September 2, 2009. and a cut from that album, "The Beauty Pageant", was awarded a 2009 Storytelling World Award for Stories for Adult Listeners.
name="sw09">The 2009 Storytelling World Resource Awards. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
The fifth album by Irwin, Crowd Control, (2008, Echo Lake Records) is mainly a storytelling compilation that was recorded during a Teller in Residence show Irwin performed at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee in July, 2008. The album includes stories about Aunt Marguerite and her deceased husband, Charles, plus stories about Irwin's experiences with his sons, Liam and Tristan. There is also one song on the album.
CD Baby
CD Baby is an online music store specializing in the sale of CDs and digital music downloads from independent musicians to consumers. The company is also a digital aggregator of independent music recordings, distributing content to several online digital music retailers.CD Baby has achieved recent...
. Retrieved October 24, 2008. In 2010, Crowd Control was honored by Storytelling World in the category Storytelling Recordings for Any Age.
Released in 2010 (Echo Lake Records), Lip Service is a musical album that features Irwin's whistling and 'mouth music'. Irwin also sings and plays guitar on the album and is accompanied by other musicians on a majority of the songs. There are three tracks
where he is a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
, performing all parts of the song by whistling, singing and making mouth percussion, including "Low Rider
Low Rider
"Low Rider" is a song written by the band War and appearing on their 1975 album Why Can't We Be Friends?. It reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts and peaked at number seven on the Pop Singles chart....
" and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is the most common English title of the 10th movement of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. A transcription by the English pianist Myra Hess was published in 1926 for piano solo and in 1934 for piano duet...
". The release is a two disc set; in addition to a musical CD, the package includes a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
of Irwin performing five songs with the Kandinsky Trio.
CD Baby
CD Baby is an online music store specializing in the sale of CDs and digital music downloads from independent musicians to consumers. The company is also a digital aggregator of independent music recordings, distributing content to several online digital music retailers.CD Baby has achieved recent...
. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
Marguerite
Most of the stories on Irwin’s albums revolve around his fictional aunt, Dr. Marguerite Van Camp, whom he describes as being about 85 years old. Aunt Marguerite founded Southern White Old Lady Hospital in rural Georgia because (as Irwin explains in Marguerite’s old lady voice) "all our husbands have moved on, and we were tired of the garden club and the bridge club and the ladies club. So Mary Frances and Julia and I all went back to medical school."While Aunt Marguerite is fictional, Irwin loosely based the character on his mother ("unabashed and delightfully inappropriate") and his maternal grandmother ("a genteel, bun-haired lady of means"). As Irwin explains, "I was raised by Southern women so I imitate a lot of them. Marguerite is the voice of my grandmother, who was born in 1894, and the attitude of my mother. And anything that I want to gripe about I put into [Marguerite's] voice and nobody feels bad about me." The character of Marguerite is one that evolved from a nurse character Irwin created to entertain his mother while she was hospitalized with cancer.
Creative Loafing
CL Inc. is the Tampa, Florida-based publisher of three city newsweeklies and their associated websites. Each of the papers focuses on local news, politics, arts and entertainment, and restaurants...
Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, January 30, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
Johnny & Kenny
Two other recurring characters in Irwin's stories, Johnny and his brother Kenny, are actual people whom he knew as a child. When the all-whiteRacial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
elementary school that Irwin attended in the 1960s was forced to integrate
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
, he became classmates with Johnny Norrington, an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
. They became good friends despite lingering racial barriers. In his story "The Rudiments" on Banana Seat, Irwin describes an accident he caused while riding his bike on a visit to the Norringtons' all-black neighborhood. Genuinely afraid of retaliation, Irwin was whisked to safety by the boys' mother. On the album Bootsie in Season, Irwin recalls how he and Johnny managed to watch the movie Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is a 1965 British horror film from Amicus Productions, directed by veteran horror director Freddie Francis, written by Milton Subotsky, and starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee....
together despite Johnny having to sit in the "colored
Colored
Colored is a term once widely used in the United States to describe black people and Native Americans...
section" in the balcony while Irwin watched from the level below.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Chattanooga Times Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metro Chattanooga region of Tennessee and Northwest Georgia...
, February 27, 2008. Retrieved March 3, 2008. (The two boys would share a box of Milk Duds
Milk Duds
Milk Duds are a caramel candy, historically enrobed with milk chocolate and currently enrobed with a confectionery coating made from cocoa and vegetable oil. They are currently manufactured by The Hershey Company. Milk Dud's are an excellent source of Calcium, containing as much Calcuim as an 8 0z...
by throwing it back and forth between the balcony and the floor.) Friendships that crossed the color barrier were unusual at the time and Irwin had to endure vicious taunts from other white children.
Mouth sounds and imitations
Irwin has a unique ability to make an extremely wide variety of sounds with his mouth, whether he is imitating the voices of others, musical instruments or the sounds found in everyday life.In storytelling, he is best known for his "old lady characterizations" as he recounts tales of Marguerite and her friends, giving each a distinct voice that, with just a few words, can convey a great deal about that character’s personality. Irwin's storytelling albums showcase a wide variety of sound effects as well, ranging from the annoying musical ring of a cell phone to the low bellow of a fog horn. In his musical performances, the instruments he imitates include electric guitar, trumpet and tuba, leading Irwin to note, "The closest thing I have to a keyboard
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
player is my face".
Additionally, he is an extraordinary whistler, able to make sounds on both inhalation and exhalation, which allows him to whistle without pausing for about one and a half minutes. The Beacon, the student newspaper for the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is a public, residential, liberal arts college that offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. Located in North Adams, Massachusetts, it is part of the state university system of Massachusetts. It is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts...
, recounted a portion of Irwin’s performance:
'Someone ask me if I smoke,' said Irwin. The audience complied. Then he whistled without taking a breath for over a minute. After which he answered with a sly 'No.'Ironically, a quote by Irwin--"Don’t be afraid to be amazing"--appeared on The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter Issue #178.
Kandinsky Trio
Irwin also performs with the Kandinsky Trio, a classicalClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, chamber music trio
Piano trio
A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...
that features piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
. The Trio first saw Irwin when they were performing at the National Storytelling Festival in October 2005. The Trio was so impressed with Irwin that they suggested collaborating. In December 2006, Irwin joined the Trio in concert at Roanoke College
Roanoke College
Roanoke College is an private, coeducational, four-year liberal-arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The college is located in Salem, Virginia, a suburban independent city adjacent to Roanoke, Virginia...
. The evening featured Irwin performing with the Trio by whistling several songs specifically arranged for the Trio and Irwin.
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
, jazz standards by Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, a Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n pan flute
Pan flute
The pan flute or pan pipe is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting usually of five or more pipes of gradually increasing length...
concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
, and unusual arrangements of popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
. Several videos of their collaboration have been recorded and posted on the video sharing
Video hosting service
A video hosting service allows individuals to upload video clips to an Internet website. The video host will then store the video on its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view this video...
website YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
including their version of the New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
tune "She Blinded Me with Science
She Blinded Me with Science
"She Blinded Me With Science" is a New Wave song by British musician Thomas Dolby, released in 1982. It was first released as a single in the UK in October 1982 and was subsequently included on the EP Blinded by Science and the second edition of Dolby's debut album The Golden Age of Wireless. It is...
" and the Monk/Best
Denzil Best
Denzil DaCosta Best was an American jazz percussionist and composer born in New York City. He was a prominent bebop drummer in the 1950s and early '60s....
tune "Bemsha Swing
Bemsha Swing
Bemsha Swing is a jazz standard co-written by Thelonious Monk and Denzil Best.The tune is 16 bars in the form of AABA. It is in 4/4 meter but is often played with a 2-feel...
".
The Roanoke Times
The Roanoke Times is the primary newspaper in Southwestern Virginia and is based in Roanoke, Virginia, United States. It is published by Landmark Media Enterprises...
, November 25, 2007. Retrieved November 27, 2007.
Radio
Irwin served as hostPresenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
, storyteller, and self-proclaimed "audience
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
trainer" of the Evening Star radio show,
Georgia Public Broadcasting
Georgia Public Broadcasting is the public broadcasting radio and television state network in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is operated by the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission....
.
WSVH-FM
WSVH FM 91.1 is a 96,000-watt public radio station broadcasting from Savannah, Georgia, and transmitting from the WVAN-TV 9 tower to the west in Pembroke, Georgia, north of Fort Stewart. It serves the upper Georgia coast and areas well inland, and adjacent areas of far southern South Carolina.The...
. Retrieved on January 7, 2007. Irwin began each radio broadcast by performing the show's theme song
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
(which he composed), then he told a story and introduced the musical performer(s).
The Evening Star radio show was recorded live at the Evening Star Music Series at the Sautee Nacoochee
Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia
Sautee Nacoochee is an unincorporated community in White County, Georgia, near Sautee Creek in the Appalachian foothills of northeast Georgia, approximately north of Atlanta...
Center, which is located in the foothills of Northeast Georgia near Helen
Helen, Georgia
Helen is a city located on the Chattahoochee River in White County in the north of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the city's population was 420.-History:...
.
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
musicians.
"Don't be afraid to be amazing."
Waffle House
Waffle House is a restaurant chain with over 1600 locations found in 25 states in the United States. Most of the locations are in the Southern United States, where the chain remains a regional cultural icon...
that he had with Cyndi Craven (a friend, musician and Irwin's website designer
Web design
Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
):
. . . and I was talking about what I have to tell myself all the time when I'm afraid about doing something that hasn't been done before because it really is frightening to step out and do something different. So I will tell myself, "Don’t be afraid to be amazing". Cyndi said, "Where did you get that?" I said, "I made it up".Craven subsequently posted the quotation on the internet and it now appears on dozens of websites including the quotation search-tools Think Exist
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
Gaia Community,
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
site Beyond the Rainbow
Irwin's quotation was chosen to be the message of the mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s created by artist Susan Guevara for the post-Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
renovation of the New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
Children’s Resource Center
New Orleans Public Library
The New Orleans Public Library is the public library service of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.-History:The system began in 1896 as the Fisk Free and Public Library in a building on Lafayette Square...
branch library.
New Orleans Public Library
The New Orleans Public Library is the public library service of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.-History:The system began in 1896 as the Fisk Free and Public Library in a building on Lafayette Square...
. Retrieved March 27, 2007. Irwin also uses the quotation as a title of a storytelling workshop that he teaches to adults.
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
. Retrieved September 21, 2000.
Personal
In 1992, Irwin and his wife, Kathleen, married. Later that same year, Kathleen gave birth to twins. One of the twins, Ian, was stillborn and the other, Tristan, was born profoundly disabledDisability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
and microcephalic with the spastic quadriplegia form of cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, chiefly in the various areas of body movement....
characterized by extremely limited motor skill
Motor skill
A motor skill is a learned sequence of movements that combine to produce a smooth, efficient action in order to master a particular task. The development of motor skill occurs in the motor cortex, the region of the cerebral cortex that controls voluntary muscle groups.- Development of motor skills...
s and cognitive abilities
Developmental disability
Developmental disability is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe lifelong disabilities attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18. It is not synonymous with "developmental delay" which is often a consequence of a temporary illness or trauma during...
. Two stories and one song on Irwin’s album Crowd Control recount his experiences of loving and living with a severely disabled child. Defying medical expectation (Irwin jokes that Tristan flunked out of in-the-home hospice
Palliative care
Palliative care is a specialized area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients...
care for not dying on schedule), Tristan lived to the age of eleven, dying in 2004.
Irwin resides in Covington, Georgia with his wife and their son, Liam (born 1999). Irwin is 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall.
External links
- Andy Offutt Irwin's official website
- Young Audiences Woodruff Arts Center includes video of Irwin as arts educator
- Interview with Irwin on Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Podcast
- Profile of Irwin in Georgia Magazine
- International Society of Protozoologist's MP3 download of "Clamydomonas (sp?)" (sic) from Banana Seat
- Performing “Bemsha Swing” with the Kandinsky Trio
- Performing a story on the television show Stories in Focus